Asthma statistics

If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with asthma, you might be interested in finding out more, for example, how common it is, the timeframe or likelihood of recovery, related issues and, medicine usage and treatments.

Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows that:

10% of the Australian population has asthma

slightly more women than men have asthma

asthma was more common in males than females aged 0-14, but more common in females aged 15 and over

the prevalence of asthma was significantly higher in people living in inner regional areas compared with those living in major cities

asthma was more common among people living in socioeconomically disadvantaged localities compared with those in the least disadvantaged localities.

Deaths attributed to asthma have remained stable since 2003 - below 2.0 per 100,000 population. An estimated 389 people died from asthma in 2013.

Asthma expenditure was $655 million in the 2008-09 financial year (0.9% of the total allocated health expenditure), with the following breakdown: